The present invention relates generally to the legal or lawful intercept (LI) of communications associated with a mobile node.
A service provider generally provides services to its subscribers, which may generally include mobile nodes. The services may include, but are not limited to including, provisions for allowing subscribers to gain access to networks in order to exchange information, e.g., with other nodes which have access to the networks. The information is typically exchanged as electronic mail, text, graphics, images, web pages, files and the like.
In addition to providing services to subscribers, a service provider also often provides various services to Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs) in order to accommodate law enforcement. LI capabilities are often included in the services provided to the LEAs, and allow communications transferred to and from target nodes in a network to be lawfully monitored. A target node is typically any node that is under surveillance. In LI arrangements, a service provider may configure a mediation device to administer the tapping of the communications, e.g., surveillance. When a mobile node under surveillance accesses its home service provider network, i.e., the service provider network to which the mobile node is subscribed, the mediation device within whose domain the mobile node is in establishes a tap of communications to and from the mobile node. After obtaining information, as for example packets of data, from the mobile node, the mediation device then forwards the information to the LEA that requested the tap.